The Religion
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Their god is War. And every god needs his Devil. THE RELIGION
Malta, 1565. The greatest war the world has ever seen is unleashed on the doomed island as the Turks do battle with the Knights. The Knights call themselves The Religion. The Turks call them the Hounds of Hell.
Back in Sicily, the beautiful, rich Carla pines for her bastard son, lost in the bloody inferno across the water.
Enter Mattias Tannhauser – warrior, hero and double agent. Under Carla’s command, he embarks on a death-defying mission to save her son. But can he evade the Inquisition and escape to run the Turkish blockade to victory in time?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Willocks, a novelist (Bad City Blues) and screenwriter (Sin), strikes gold with this epic account of the Turkish siege of Malta in 1565 the first of a planned trilogy featuring Mattias Tannhauser, the son of a Saxon blacksmith. Young Tannhauser is kidnapped by Muslim raiders and trained as a holy warrior before winning his release and settling in Sicily, where he becomes a prosperous arms dealer. His comfortable life is interrupted by the arrival of Contessa Carla La Penautier, a young widow who uses her considerable charms (and title) to recruit Tannhauser to help her find Orlandu, the bastard son she was forced to abandon at birth 12 years earlier. Arriving on Malta, where Carla believes her son is, Tannhauser and Carla get caught in the Turkish attack on the Christian enclave. Meanwhile, Orlandu's father, Ludovico Ludovici, a monk and feared inquisitor, has returned to Malta with hopes of bringing Malta under papal control. Tannhauser has to find Orlandu, unmask the scheming and unscrupulous Ludovici, survive vicious combat against the Turks, win Carla's heart and find a way to escape the "island of fanatics and fools." In Tannhauser, Willocks has created a dazzling hero whose debut will leave readers eager for the next installment.
Customer Reviews
Epic
It really is an epic tale and should be made into a film. I read this book a few years ago and it really left an impression about how horrific war was back then, very personal and in you're face and we see how it affects people on both sides.
The story is amazing, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone but the depiction of the knights of Saint John the order of the knights hospitaller, warrior monks who's order is older than the knights Templar and still in existence today is just spot on. I can't recommend this book enough a must read for anyone who wants adventure, lust for wealth and love, betrayal and glory... 5 stars